March 17, 2013 - Elder Williams best quote this week, "The days feel like they take weeks but the weeks feel like days. Of course I still haven't been gone long so maybe I’m just making stuff up."

Hey there family of mine!!

So it has been a great week and i'm doing well. that's pretty crazy about loren! i'm glad he is okay though and it's amazing the little things that we do differently each day that make all the difference in the world. they are right when they say that the Lord works by small and simple means. i'm glad you got the pool fence up, that'll help. it sounds like everyone is doing great back home!

Another week has flown by. the days feel like they take weeks but the weeks feel like days. of course i still haven't been gone long so maybe i'm just making stuff up. This week we had a big follow up training for all of us new missionaries and that was fun because i got to see all my buddies from the mtc. president durrant is hilarious. he loves squirrels and has a whole presentation about them that links back to obedience, i'll have to tell you the whole thing sometime. we had two exchanges this week. the first one was on wednesday and i stayed in our area and tried to lead the way. we got everywhere successfully, but we did quite a lot of tracting because i don't know tons of people in the area still. my companion for the day was a good kid. the second one, i went to plano 5th and 7th ward and that area is HUGE. and the bike i got to ride was a bit too small for me, but i made it work. i'll send a picture.we met a guy named kevin that they have been teaching and he was quite the character. he was chewing tobacco and spitting the whole time and i just about threw up. we ended up having a really great time. on friday elder merrill and i visited a  less active mother and daughter who are a bit older. i told them that mom really loves castles and knights and all that fun stuff and she assumed that mom and her are exactly alike. she is really nice. yesterday we had dinner with some nonmembers and it went really well. the food was delicious first of all, and then we taught them the restoration and they asked tons of questions to clarify and also asked about temples and then explained about their church as well. they were really nice, wonderful people who truly believe in Christ and it was refreshing just to have people listen to us instead of telling us to take a hike. we don't think they will go anywhere but they want to have dinner again sometime to learn more so we'll see.

Some funny stuff that happened: we were riding along yesterday and the big power line poles are right in the middle of the sidewalk or barely off to the side, it's ridiculous, but at one point there was a pole on one side and a support cable on the other side and it made a gap that looked like it was big enough to ride through. elder merrill made it. i wasn't so lucky. i was so focused on the pole that my handlebars caught the cable and it dumped me into the grass next to the sidewalk so chalk up another crash for me. then later in the day we were talking to this man who was walking( who was a stubborn punk) and the conversation was nice but you could tell he wanted us to get lost. elder merrill was contemplating it and another support cable snuck up on him and he tried dodging it but ended up going over the handlebars. he rolled and popped back up though, took it like a champ, so i had a good laugh about that. aaaand we were knocking a street and tons of people have "no soliciting" signs up and this man looked out the window and knocked on his sign and we just waved back but didn't leave. he walked away so we eventually left and as we were walking to the next house he came back out and started yelling at us and telling us that there was no soliciting in the neighborhood. we told him that we were simply sharing our testimonies of Christ and he said " bull $#%^" (censored for content) and told us that we were disturbing the peace and that we needed to get out of here and went back inside. and we kept on knocking doors so it was great! my lungs are doing just fine and i'm getting into better shape now so no worries, i'm doing fine. still no baptisms though, sorry chase.

I love you all and miss you tons!

Love Elder Williams